


Anywhere you are is where I want to be

by remi_mae



Category: Super Sentai Series, 快盗戦隊ルパンレンジャー VS 警察戦隊パトレンジャー | Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger
Genre: Bisexual Ichinose Shiho, Established Relationship, F/F, Implied Asaka Keiichirou/Takao Noël, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Lesbian Hayami Umika, Mentioned Yoimachi Touma/Ohira Aya, Queer Takao Noël, Tooma spelled as Touma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 07:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20327698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_mae/pseuds/remi_mae
Summary: There's only one thing worse than losing your best friend, Umika thinks - losing your best friend that you're in love with. She's more than willing to do anything she can to get Shiho back, but she's also scared that by telling people they were more than just friends, she'll alienate herself from her new friends and be unable to get Shiho back.





	Anywhere you are is where I want to be

**Author's Note:**

> Although I only mention Umika, Shiho and Noël's sexualities outright, I pretty much headcanon them all as LGBT+. I see them as the following, if anyone cares lol; Kairi - Pansexual; Touma - Demi-pansexual (although Aya's probably the only person he's ever really loved); Keiichirou - Biromantic asexual, though I also like the idea of him being aromantic; Tsukasa - Either heteroromantic or biromantic, but gray asexual; and Sakuya's just sort of bicurious or confused (in that he knows he likes girls, but he could like guys? It's never happened, but he's not opposed to it.)
> 
> I also don't mean any offense by calling Noël queer - I know a lot of people still think of it as a slur, but I don't. Noël is referring to himself as queer, mostly because it's easier, even if I never actually use the word in writing. I kind of ended up projecting onto him, and I'm demi-biromantic asexual and somewhere on the genderqueer/non-binary spec, which is a mouthful, so sometimes I just say I'm queer, and I headcanon Noël doing much the same. It lets people know he's not heterosexual without getting into details.
> 
> This is also sort of all over the place, but I wasn't entirely sure where I was going with it. It's mostly just it feels like the overall style or layout of the writing feels a little weird to me, but at the same time I don't think I could re-write this another way, so... we're going with. I don't think it's confusing, but sorry if it is.
> 
> Title from One Ok Rock's One Way Ticket (which very much served as the soundtrack for much of writing this.)

They don't really talk about their loved ones. It's painful enough to think about them sometimes, let alone talk about them. While they're willing to do all of this to get them back, it hurts too much to talk about them. It's something they all understand, so they never push it.

They know who the others lost, know names and the bare minimum of facts, just so they know why they might react to certain things, know to avoid certain topics.

Kairi lost his older brother, the only family he had left, after having already lost their parents.

Touma lost his fiancee, who's parents blame him for her 'running away.'

Umika lost her best friend, who pushed her out of the way and took the shot herself.

That's what Umika told them at least, and if any of them know otherwise, they haven't said anything. It's not like it's _wrong_, it's just not the whole truth. She has to get Shiho back, isn't sure what she'll do if she can't, and if that means lying and saying that Shiho was _just_ her best friend to ensure that the other two don't react poorly, she's fine with that. It's not like it would be the first time she's had to pretend that Shiho's not her girlfriend, and as long as they get all of the Lupin Collection and get her back, Umika doubts it will be the last time.

Her parents know, and don't seem to mind, but they also don't really get it. They both think she's too young, and while her mother agreed to let her drop out of school and work as a live in employee at Jurer, her father doesn't think she should "let her whole life go to waste because of one person." Umika's not really sure how much of that is because she's still quite young, and how much of it is because her father thinks her liking girls is just a phase.

Shiho's parents blame her, for a number of things. For Shiho not being more popular, for 'making her' like girls, for going missing. She more than blames herself for the last one, but she... she kind of gets it. If she'd been in Shiho's position, she would've pushed her out of the way and gotten shot, encased in ice, herself. God, what she wouldn't give for it to be her instead of Shiho... but then it would be Shiho in her position, desperate to get her back, willing to become a thief and put herself in danger, time and time again, in order to do it.

And then there's Sakuya-san. Umika doesn't _dislike_ him, but she'll never like him the way he wants her to. She went through that entire phase in middle school, trying to force herself to be 'normal,' to like boys like every other girl in her class. When she finally broke down crying, told Shiho that she likes girls, Shiho had just hugged her and told her it didn't change anything. Then, almost a year later, Shiho admitted to her that she liked boys, but she liked girls too, and a few months after _that_, they were both giggly messes because "she likes me back!"

So while Umika likes Sakuya-san, it's very much as a friend, and she's not really sure how to let him down and tell him there's _no way_ she'll like him romantically without straight (ha) out coming out to him. She hasn't even told Kairi or Touma yet - and there's no way she can tell Sakuya before she tells them.

Then Noël shows up and throws all of those plans she has out the window. He's just so... _Noël_.

She doesn't quite trust him - none of them do - because he won't tell them much of anything, but there's still something about him that makes Umika relax a little. He's comfortable, in some ways. She doesn't _think_ she shows it, but he must notice, which means Kairi and Touma notice, which means eventually she's cornered about it. It doesn't really go the way she was expecting it to, honestly.

"Do you like him? Noël, I mean." Kairi asks one night, after Noël's left Jurer, prompting Umika to whirl around with a very confused look on her face.

"Why...?" She starts, before shaking her head. "If you mean as a friend, then yes. If you mean as more, then no. _Definitely_ no." Touma peers out at her from the kitchen, and Umika resists the urge to stomp her foot - she's a phantom thief, she will _not_ resort to being so childish, just because her friends are being stupid.

"Eh, really?" Umika's pretty sure Kairi's just trying to goad her into saying yes to get him to stop, as if 'yes' is the only answer he could possibly see.

"Really, really." She barely stops herself from sticking her tongue out at him, instead pushing past to go (kind of angrily) wipe down a table.

She doesn't see Kairi move towards the kitchen, but she hears his not so subtle 'whisper' of "I think she likes him."

The cloth she's using to wipe down the tables misses him when she throws it, but Touma hits Kairi's head, so that makes up for it.

"I don't like Noël, okay! He's a friend, and barely that, and I don't like him that way!" She huffs, taking her apron off and throwing it at Kairi's face before storming out of the restaurant. Let Kairi do all the cleaning this time, see how he likes it.

She doesn't go very far, because it's getting late, and she doesn't want to have to walk back by herself at night (she might be a phantom thief, but she's still a not-quite-an-adult girl. Also she's kind of lazy sometimes.) She sits down on a bench, mumbling to herself about stupid Kairi, thinking she has a stupid crush on a boy, when someone sits down next to her.

"Everything alright, Umika-chan?" Ah. She's not sure whether it's better or worse that it's Noël that found her. She's sure she'd hit Kairi, and it's definitely better than Sakuya-san happening across her. Noël, or Touma, really was probably the best option.

"Kairi's being stupid." She grumbles, crossing her arms across her chest. Noël gives a little laugh.

"Is that anything new?" It makes Umika laugh a little, but then she ends up just staring at the ground.

"Stupid about different things, I guess."

Noël hums quietly. "Would you like to talk about it? I've heard I'm quite a good listener." If it were anyone else, Umika definitely wouldn't take them up on their offer, but there's something _comforting_ about Noël, in a weird way, so she talks.

She tells him that Kairi seems to think she has a crush on him, and that he's nice and all, but definitely, _definitely_ not her type (really, he's more like a big brother.) Noël laughs again after she says that, and she looks over at him, tilting her head to the side.

"I'm guessing your type is less... male?" Umika blinks, and tries to backtrack and deny it, but the look Noël's giving her isn't mean or judging so much as... understanding.

"Noël too?" is what she ends up saying instead of admitting it, or continuing to try and deny it. She flushes little when she registers her words. Noël doesn't see to take offense to it though, which is a relief.

"Oui," he smiles, and she feels herself relax again. "Japan is not as open as France is, so I must admit I've tried to keep it quiet." Umika understands that. It's not that she's embarrassed or ashamed that she's lesbian, it's that being open makes it _hard_.

"I haven't told Kairi and Touma yet. I'm... I'm kind of scared how they'll react." While her own parents didn't really care, as long as she was happy, Shiho's had gotten angry when they'd tried to come out to them. They hadn't _done_ anything, because Shiho grabbed her hand and left, but they clearly hadn't been happy. Shiho had tried to avoid spending time at home after that, and Umika had avoided going over at all.

"It's a scary thing." Noël agrees, watching not Umika's reaction, but the road in front of them. "Not knowing if someone you care about deeply will react poorly. It's hard."

She taps a foot on the ground, chewing on her lip for a moment. Noël knows why they agreed to become phantom thieves, why they're retrieving the Lupin Collection, and they know he's doing it for much the same reasons. They don't know _who_ he lost, and none of them have really talked about it with him, though Umika is sure he has a general idea, because he obviously knows Kogure-san well enough, and Kogure-san probably told him.

Noël doesn't press, doesn't say anything, but Umika stands up from the bench, walks a few steps forward and turns around. "Shiho-chin is my girlfriend." There! She said it!

She's trying hard not to wring her hands together. Even if Noël already figured her out, and had basically just admitted that he's not straight, she's kind of nervous to see his reaction. There's no reason for him to react poorly in any way, but... saying that Shiho is her girlfriend isn't something she's really gotten to say much. Even at school, no one suspected anything after they started dating, because they didn't act any differently than they always had. Didn't help neither of them felt at all comfortable coming out to their classmates.

"I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me," Noël says, and he's smiling softly at her when she finally looks at him, instead of the bench next to him. She feels all of the tension leaving, and lets out a little huff, before sitting on the bench again.

"I mean, you kind of figured me out already," she mumbles, but she's not upset, and it's obvious. She's smiling, for one.

Noël becomes someone who's easy to talk with, about anything and everything. He doesn't seem to have any expectations of her, so he isn't upset or frustrated when she asks something she deems stupid, and while Kairi has yet to _fully_ stop teasing her, having someone she feels she can completely confide in is worth it.

But then everything goes to hell, and Umika's not sure what to do. Because apparently Noël isn't _human_, but at the same time, that doesn't negate everything he's done for them, nor all the time spent with him. It was just something he kept to himself because it was _easier_ that way, safer, much the same way she hasn't told people about her relationship with Shiho, because it's easier and safer. Umika can't really blame Noël for not telling them.

It reminds her that she should tell Kairi and Touma though, before she ends up being outed, like Noël was (even if it's in slightly different ways.) It's never the right _time_ though. Either something else is going on, or Umika's train of thought gets interrupted before she can really decide to tell them. The next thing she knows, they're facing Zamigo for the final time, and Dogranio Yabun is there, and then they're in his _safe_, and they've defeated Zamigo, and it's _over_, it's finally _over_. They send the Collection pieces through the book, and there's nothing more they can do, so once they've all calmed down a little, she decides to tell them. There's no guarantee that Noël will be able to get them out of the safe, so... no time like the present, right?

"Shiho-chin isn't my best friend." She says out of the blue, while they're all just laying on the grass. Then she frowns and backtracks. "I mean, she isn't _just_ my best friend. She's my girlfriend." Or was, before everything started. She's not really sure how it works when one person was frozen in ice for almost two years, and now that they're free, the other person is stuck in a Gangler safe with no clear way of escape.

Kairi's reaction she kind of expects - a sort of "eh?" and confusion - but Touma's is totally unexpected.

A soft smile and a nod. That's it.

"Eh?" Umika blinks, "Touma, did you know?"

"I... suspected," Touma says, slowly, like he's not quite sure how _she'll_ react. She blinks a few more times, before tilting her head, honestly a little confused.

"_How_?" Kairi seems to get over his confusion quickly and joins her in asking how Touma knew. For his part, Touma just smiles and gives a little laugh.

"Whenever you talked about her, you sounded like I did when I talked about Aya." He says, "You seemed desperate in the same way I did. It took a while to notice, and since you said she was your best friend, I figured you either weren't together, or you were just scared to come out, because you weren't sure how we'd react."

Umika blinks, again. It's not that she's surprised that Touma reacted the way he did, it's that he apparently knew and didn't mention it. If he thought she was scared to come out to them, he could've hinted that he didn't care... but then again, this is _Touma_, so she shouldn't be too surprised, just like she's not surprised Kairi didn't know. He can be really oblivious, sometimes.

"I was. I was scared about how you'd react." She admits, looking down at her lap. "At first at least. The more I got to know you, the more I figured you wouldn't even care, but then it never felt like a good time to tell you." She wrinkles her nose. "I wanted to tell you, after everything with Noël. Him not being human. It never felt like a good time though, there was too much going on." Kairi gives a little nod, one that says 'yeah, that's probably fair.'

"So you definitely never liked Sakuya? Or Noël?" Kairi asks, and Umika reaches over to hit him. He whines a little, and she has to laugh. Even though they're stuck in Dogranio Yabun's safe and could quite possibly die in here, this is the lightest she's felt in a long time... since Shiho really. Just knowing that they've saved her, Kairi's brother and Touma's fiancee, and whomever else was frozen, it makes her feel so much lighter.

She shakes her head. "Nope, never. Sakuya-san's nice and all, but even if I liked boys, I don't think I'd like him that way." She pauses, before laughing a little. "If I did like boys, honestly Noël would probably be more my type." Though maybe that's just because he's easy to talk to, and when it's just the two of them, she can talk about Shiho freely, without fear of him judging her. Noël talked to her too, about a few of his past relationships. Sometimes she'd say something and it would make him laugh or smile, and he'd explain why, and it was just... nice to have someone to talk to. Even before they'd gotten together, she'd only had Shiho to talk to, because Shiho was the only person she'd come out to, besides her parents. Telling Kairi and Touma, it's another weight off her shoulders.

After everything is finally, _finally_ over - once Noël found Jackpot Striker and the three of them are free from Dogranio's safe - Umika's almost amazed at how quickly everything goes back to normal. She's not sure how they managed it, but she, Kairi and Touma are off the hook for all of their phantom thief related crimes. She thinks it has something to do with the fact that they defeated Zamigo and got most of the missing people back. And that without them sending all of his Collection pieces through the book and to the Lupin family vault, Dogranio wouldn't have been arrested.

The police trio don't seem super pleased that they were freed and immediately went back to gathering the rest of the Collection pieces - it's for Noël and Kogure-san though. They know that's what Kogure-san wanted the Collection to be found for, so they could use the wish to bring back Arsene Lupin, and knowing he wasn't just Kogure-san's boss, but Noël's _dad_, adopted or not, they all agreed that if they got out of the safe and there were still Collection pieces to be found, that they'd help. Noël deserves to get his dad back.

Umika thinks Keiichirou, Tsukasa and Sakuya might know that, because when they reopen Jurer, a few days after returning, the three of them are among the first customers. It's busier now - although they're not being charged for anything, people still know they were the Lupinranger's, the phantom thieves stirring up a storm, and it brings a lot of business in.

It's a good thing, Umika thinks, that they have some extra help now. Aya helps Touma in the kitchen, though it's mostly just Umika and Kairi as the waitstaff. Shouri and Shiho help, but they're not there quite as often. Umika doesn't mind though - because even when she's not working, Shiho often comes to Jurer just to sit and work on her manga, and will get up to help if it's obvious that Umika and Kairi are being overwhelmed by the number of customers.

It's almost like it was before they had to close Jurer, with the three police officers sitting at the same table almost every day, often joined by Noël, though not always. That's why it's almost surprising that it takes so long for the three of them to realize that Shiho's more than just a best friend to Umika. She and Shiho have both changed, but they're also both less afraid of people saying anything. No one really tries to say anything while they're at Jurer, if Umika and Shiho are being giggly together, holding hands or giving the other a quick peck. The one time someone does, they seem to immediately regret it, because Kairi and Touma can both be very scary when they want to, and that's not even taking into account that _Umika's_ the one threatening the man, with a smile on her face. No one dares try and be homophobic towards the two of them after that.

Still, the police never seem to be in when Shiho is, and Umika knows it's just bad timing, but it takes a few weeks. It kind of sucks, because she wants to introduce Shiho to them as her girlfriend.

It _finally_ works out that Shiho's working with her when the three of them and Noël come in, and Umika grins. Shiho catches it and smiles back at her, when Umika turns around, silently asking if it's okay. Noël smiles at her as well, eyes flicking over to Shiho. Umika nods, and goes over to greet the four of them at their usual table.

After she's got their orders, she gets Shiho to help her take them over.

"Keiichirou-san, Tsukasa-san, Sakuya-san. This is Shiho." She reaches over to grab Shiho's hand after introducing her, and Noël gives her a reassuring smile. The three greet her, with Noël giving a short "bonjour, Shiho-chan. Nice to see you again," and Umika has to take a deep breath, before lifting her and Shiho's hands a little. "Shiho-chin is my girlfriend."

Unsurprisingly, Sakuya is the surprised one. Keiichirou looks to Noël, and they seem to have an entire conversation without talking, which leaves Umika staring at Noël until he shrugs and mouths 'tell you later,' (which he had _better_. There's something going on there, and she wants to know about it!) Tsukasa seems confused for a moment, before she just smiles.

"How long have you two been dating?" She asks, and Umika grins a little wider.

"First year of high school." She tells them, trying not to wince when Sakuya looks even more surprised.

"Umika-chan," he starts, and she's prepared for the worst. Noël told her it would be fine, when she told him that she wanted to introduce Shiho to them as her girlfriend, but there's still a part of her that's scared she's going to lose friends over this, "I'm sorry I kept trying to ask you out. I wouldn't have if I'd known." Oh. Well, that wasn't quite what she was expecting, but that's a good response!

She shakes her head. "It's okay. There's no way you would have known. I didn't really tell anyone." She nods a little towards Noël. "He figured it out, so he knew, but it took... a long time for me to even tell Kairi and Touma." That makes Sakuya look a little less uncomfortable, knowing he wasn't really out of the loop. It does make her feel like she should have told everyone sooner, but she can't change it now. Everything worked out in the end, she thinks, looking around Jurer. Shiho squeezes her hands a little, and she smiles again.

This is exactly where she wants to be.


End file.
